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Fat doesn't decompose very readily - which is why it's commonly used to seal jars of meat products like terrine and pâté. In anaerobic conditions, you get hydr
by madaxe_again 9y ago
Fat doesn't decompose very readily - which is why it's commonly used to seal jars of meat products like terrine and pâté.
In anaerobic conditions, you get hydrolysis of fat, in which the water content is removed and the fats end up saturated and indigestible further by anaerobic processes. Cf. Corpse Wax.
In aerobic conditions, they'll be broken down into aldehydes and ketones.
I'm guessing that the interior of a monstrous fatberg is rather anaerobic, so you just end up with a great big blob of saturated fatty acids.
- gambiting 9y agoFat is such a fantastic store of energy I am really surprised nothing evolved to eat it in this form.
- deadbunny 9y agoI see you've never been to Scotland.
- Graham24 9y agoouch!
- merpnderp 9y agoGiven the recent Lancet study on the healthfulness of high fat diets, maybe these could be recycled for food.
- MertsA 9y agoThe Chinese have quite the problem with exactly that. Eating something pulled out of a sewer tends to have health effects and gutter oil is sometimes made from grease from a sewer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil
- KozmoNau7 9y agoThe depths of human depravity know no bounds.
- bane 9y agoIt's actually been used as a way to preserve food in the past, often as a kind of watertight plug or seal to keep food from going bad. Here's a great example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdKzWQOVET4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdKzWQOVET4